‘The Shock Book coverDoctrine – The Rise of Disaster Capitalism’ by Naomi Klein is a must read for anyone who still believes that the economic policies of the free market are concerned to give personal liberty for all.

Klein uses torture as a metaphor to show that the barbaric techniques used in what, in Orwellian language,the CIA call “coercive interrogation” have a parallel with the distorted thinking behind laissez-faire economics which she views as “different manifestations of the same terrifying logic“.

The first aims to ‘unmake’ individual personalities to create a blank slate (tabala rasa) while the second entails the premeditated destruction of public funded fabric of societies as a vital step towards a ‘rebirth’ under free market conditions. In each case the destruction is far easier to achieve than the reconstruction.

For individuals, methods like electroshock ‘therapy’, sensory deprivation or overload serves only to reduce people to jibbering wrecks and in no condition to be healed or to be sources of reliable information .

When it comes to whole countries the shock therapy has disastrous consequences for the citizens and miraculous results for investors and corporations who reaped huge financial windfalls on the backs of others’ strife.

The ubiquitous figure of the late Milton Friedman dominates this story. Chicago’s Economic Department (the ‘Chicago boys’) were in thrall to his own particular brand of shock treatment masquerading as economic salvation . Friedman wrote that “only a crisis – actual or perceived -produces real change” and his theories on rampant privatisation resulted in the catalogue of mercenary policies pursued in countries such as Chile, Poland, South Africa and the USA.

Klein’s point is that deliberately engineering an economic crisis in this way creates “democracy-free zones” which enable leaders to initiate policies without having to be concerned about technicalities like gaining the consent of voters or achieving some sense of consensus.

Klein also connects these man-made crises with the equally devastating natural disasters like the 2004 Tsunami in Sri Lanka and hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. In both instances privately funded rebuilding has largely ridden roughshod over the needs of the indigenous populations.

Probably Klein’s most controversial argument is that corporate greed is so geared towards capitalising on such events that even disasters like 9/11 can be transformed into business opportunities. She saves her most savage attacks for the US war on Iraq saying : “Every aspect of the way the Bush administration has defined the parameters of the ‘War on Terror’ has served to maximise its profitability and sustainability as a market“.

The truth of these words and the catalogue of examples used to support her case makes for an horrific and far reaching scenario. So much so, that the pockets of resistance cited in the final chapter do not convince me that the tide is turning in favour of people’s power.

I would like to believe that Naomi Klein’s book will be a wake-up call and bring about economic policies where human interests and moral considerations hold sway.

My fear is that her voice of reason will be drowned by those whose wealth and privilege depends on turning a collective blind eye to the human consequences of disaster capitalism.